On the World Refugee Day, June 20, the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia remembers all those people who, without their fault or will, have been left homeless, without their loved ones, their jobs and property, forced to search for a safe country and a new home elsewhere, mostly very far away.

This is the occasion to remind the public that 618,000 refugees came to Serbia in the 1990s due to the war on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. There are still 27,802 persons in the refugee status (19,038 from the Republic of Croatia and 8,764 from Bosnia and Herzegovina). The number of refugees and ex-refugees in need is much higher while more than 201,000 internally displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija share their fate.

In recent years, the Republic of Serbia demonstrated humanity and respect of international standards to more than a million migrants from Asia and Africa who in 2015 passed through the territory of the Republic of Serbia. Therefore, there are a million "ambassadors" throughout the world today, talking about the hospitality of the Serbian people. Currently, 18 reception and asylum centers are home to nearly 3,000 migrants, mostly from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria. A quarter of them are children, who go to school with our children, socialize, visit each other and celebrate birthdays and other holidays together.

Serbia is still struggling to solve, first and foremost, the housing problems of people who had to leave their homes during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Thanks to the Regional Housing Programme (RHP) the joint multi-annual program of the Republic of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and the Republic of Croatia, which aims to provide permanent housing solutions for the most vulnerable refugee families in the region, Serbia is delivering a 2,000th housing solution under the Regional Housing Program these days. For more than 5,000 new families homes will be provided until the completion of this project in 2020. Twenty four construction sites are opened across Serbia, 235 families moved to apartments in the Ovca community in Belgrade on March 5, while intensive construction works of 270 new apartments in Kamendin are underway. In the period from 2008 to 2017, out of the budget of the Republic of Serbia, more than 6,000 housing solutions were provided in 175 local self-government units, including municipalities in Kosovo and Metohija, while more than 5,000 refugee and internally displaced families were economically empowered.

The Commissariat for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia would like to thank the international organizations and all donors for the support and invested funds aiming to improve the lives of the refugee population, as well as the efforts in the struggle to establish mechanisms for comprehensive and fair resolution of the remaining open issues of the regional process, with an emphasis on the priority of continuing the implementation of Annexes E and G of the Succession Agreement and resolving the remaining issues opened up in the framework of the regional cooperation process. The Republic of Serbia is fully committed to fulfilling its obligations and strengthening the stability and peace in the Balkans.